


Steady

by JazzRaft



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Established Relationship, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 14:52:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17789459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JazzRaft/pseuds/JazzRaft
Summary: Noctis surprises Ignis by taking him out on a date to his favorite cafe. It's a cold walk in a sleet storm, but the hot coffee and the company of Noct's smile is enough to warm him up. Especially when he finds out why he's being spoiled.





	Steady

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aithilin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aithilin/gifts).



> A [prompt fill](http://jazzraft.tumblr.com/post/182813097147/ignoct-cafe-date-nocts-treat) serving as my late contribution to Iggy's birthday! And something sweet for Valentine's Day!

_“What can I get you?”_

_“One cortado, and a hazelnut latte… that’ll be…”_

_“…and a ham-egg-cheese, on the double!”_

The voices of the café were a gentle droning of unobtrusive chatter; as soft as a series of whispers, and warm, swelling from behind the counter to fill the modest space like the heat of a fireplace. It was only when he closed his eyes, and tilted back his head, that he could pick out the fragments which distinguished one voice from another.

Ignis slowly let his shoulders sink down against the curve of his chair. He let himself settle, breathing in the bitter aroma of coffee streaming into cups, and parting his lips just a fraction to catch a taste of the sweet, foamy flavors being deftly mixed into each. He listened for the click and clatter of utensils muted behind the wall to the kitchen, and the absent _tink_ of spoons sliding along ceramic as customers stirred their orders.

The quiet, casual atmosphere was a much welcome refuge from the clipped cordialities of the Citadel. And the sedated iris of stove-top heat blooming from the kitchen to the rest of the restaurant was working wonders for his frozen fingertips. A gray, needle-point shroud of sleet sloughed across the city outside his window. Mounds of old snow melted sloppily underneath it, only to freeze into foot traffic traps along the sidewalk.

It was dreary, frigid weather for February, trench-coat collars turned up against the sleet with rain-boots sloshing through the muck. A horrible day for the work commute, and certainly not the most inspiring for an afternoon about the town…

But Noctis had insisted.

And Ignis held little in the way of defense against his determined grin.

“Coffee!” Noctis announced his return from the counter, setting two steaming mugs on the table. “Food in five, she said.”

A tall, dark, and jovial woman swept between kitchen and counter, bridging orders and service in a practiced pattern. Her easy-going smile seemed to be the linchpin keeping the needs of customers, counter staff, and kitchen aids in calm, working order.

“Come here often?” Ignis teased, hooking a finger through the handle of his cup. “You seem to know your way around the menu.”

Noctis shrugged, the worst kept secret in his smile. What he _did_ keep secret though, were his motivations for stealing Ignis out of work early for a café brunch date. He knew Noctis didn’t mind the occasional crack at spontaneity – especially if he was the one being spontaneous – but he was more often such a reclusive, routine creature that unscheduled dates like this one caught Ignis by surprise. Which – if the glint in Noct’s eyes was any indicator when he came to retrieve Ignis from his office – was exactly what Noctis was hoping to do: surprise him.

“I think you’ll like the coffee,” Noctis told him. “And the food. Enough to maybe come here a little more often yourself.”

He should have found Noct’s flirting to be exasperating by now, but instead Ignis grew fonder of it with every line. Each one was another step further into their relationship, Noctis growing bolder each day since they’d been dating. It was a sign of how comfortable he felt with what they had – he’d only started flirting _after_ they’d gotten together – and that trust made Ignis feel more honored than flattered by his innocent flirtations.

Besides, responding in kind was always well worth it.

“Perhaps I may,” Ignis said, lifting his cortado to his lips, lingering above the wisps of heady steam. “Does the coffee here always come served with attractive company to go with it?”

Noct’s unguarded affection for the compliment always held Ignis’s heart in a tender grasp. He always looked so delightfully surprised to be the subject of praise, biting his lower lip to try and keep his smile under control, but the light pink touch to his cheeks betrayed him, anyway.

“Quit it,” he mumbled, eyes ducked beneath the safe shade of his hair. “ _I’m_ supposed to be wooing _you_ on this date.”

Even Noct’s sweetest, most altruistic intentions wouldn’t stop Ignis from saying and doing anything he could to draw that shy smile out from hiding. Noctis tucked his face into the hazelnut-dusted foam of his latte, simmering under Ignis’s stare. He decided to show him the small mercy of retreating into his own coffee, too.

They sat in contented silence for a little while, sharing smiles, and stares, and savoring sips of coffee as the city shivered beyond the warm walls. Fog gathered in the corners of the window, and even with the caffeine kick of his cortado, the blurring of the sleet and the easy flow of conversations from all corners of the café made him feel drowsy.

Noctis blended at the edges, like he was put into the picture in front of Ignis from beneath an artist’s brushstrokes. He sat with his chin in one hand, the other looped idly around his coffee cup, whipped cream and milk foam melting into the small, mocha lagoon within. He smiled at Ignis, eyes at half-mast, two bright blue lights guiding him through the shadows of his hair.

Loving him was as quiet and simple as a café in a sleet storm. The world beyond could be cold and chaotic, but when it was just the two of them like this, even if they didn’t share a single word between them, it was warm and safe.

And delicious, once the woman who took Noct’s order appeared at their table. “Lox bagel,” she said of Noct’s plate, “And the sweet potato pastry specialty.”

Ignis was presented with a golden crown of flaky, buttery crust, braided into a nest for holding a marbled custard of orange sweet potato mash and white cream cheese. Speckled with a fine brown dusting of cinnamon for an added pinch of warmth, Ignis had to gulp down another slug of his coffee to keep himself from salivating.

Noctis exchanged thanks with their server, immediately glowing with hunger as he tackled his bagel sandwich. It was layered with generous cuts of smoked salmon over a cream cheese spread dotted with bright green dill and chives. Carbs, fish, and cream; it was the mid-morning meal of Noct’s dreams, and one Ignis guessed he ordered often from here.

“Hope that’s okay,” Noctis said, one big bite deep into his bagel as he nodded at Ignis’s pastry. “Pretty sure I know what you like.”

Ignis curbed his smile as he watched Noctis eat. It was eternally endearing to him how Noctis could go from the serene surrealism of looking like an Altissian portrait, to the earnest, mortal devourer of common café food. As eager as he was to demolish his sandwich, Noctis was even more eager for Ignis’s approval in getting his preferences right.

He took a bite of the little pastry. Delicate folds of baked dough melted against his tongue, followed by a parade of cool, creamy filling, sweet and earthy, and distinct from the more commercially preferred flavors he could grab on the fly when he was running late to an appointment. He could taste the care and creativity put into it, taste that unmistakably homemade feeling throughout every bite.

Noctis grinned across from him, thumbing a smear of cream cheese from his upper lip. “Good?” he asked.

“Perfection.”

They ate, and they talked – once the coffee kicked in, it was hard not to. They joined their voices to the café hum, Ignis dissecting the recipes for their respective dishes, Noctis practicing a few more well-placed flirtations in-between. They lamented over workplace woes, applauded Noct’s espionage in getting Ignis to escape early, and chuckled over the anonymous mannerisms of pedestrians outside their window.

It was easy being with Noctis. Easier than Ignis would have ever expected when his friend first stumbled over his confession of having feelings for him. The difference between the awkward, frightened Noctis of then, compared to the stolid, flirtatious boyfriend he had across from him now, always made Ignis smile. They’d worked slowly up to this, both growing into suppressed feelings left untended for too long.

For all that it took too long to get together, these moments they stole together always seemed too short. Before Ignis knew it, only crumbs were left on his plate, coffee stains in his cup, and the short, scrawled bill was set between them. He reached for it on instinct, but blinked in surprise when Noctis flitted it out from under him.

“Nuh uh,” he chided. “My treat. The birthday boy shouldn’t have to pay.”

Ignis blinked again, rolling over Noct’s words… And then glancing at the calendar pinned behind the coffee counter… Ah. Right… Somehow, he’d forgotten it was his birthday.

But Noctis hadn’t. Of course Noctis hadn’t.

It shouldn’t have surprised Ignis. Noctis might not have paid full attention to the royal advice Ignis was tasked with imparting upon him, but he paid attention to the little things. The things that didn’t seem as important to Ignis as the gravity of making him memorize the seats of political power in a distant nation. But as Ignis thumping heart told him now, this was just as important.

Ignis watched him pay their bill, finishing his last drops of coffee as he did. Not for the first time, nor for the last, was Ignis left at a loss for how much he truly adored him. Noctis caught him staring as he was about to reach for his coat, pausing and lifting his eyebrows in coy curiosity.

“Isn’t there something else a ‘birthday boy’ is entitled to from his boyfriend?” Ignis asked.

“You really want that?” Noctis chuckled. “With my fishy, bagel breath?”

Ignis only smiled, tilting his head to coax Noctis closer. Noctis folded his arms on the table, leaning over them for balance. His breath might have been briny, but his kiss was always, without fail, the sweetest end to a surprise date.


End file.
